Metallurgical furnace



(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet I.

S. T. OWENS.

METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

No. 321,311. Patented June 30, 1885.

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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

S. T. OWENS.

METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

No. 321,311. Patented June 30, 1885.

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S. T. OWENS. METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

Patented June 30, 1885.

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SAMUEL T. OXVENS, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 321,311, dated June 30, 1885.

Application filed June 19, 1884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SAMUEL T. Ownns, of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a. new and useful Improvement in Metallurgical Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of my improved furnace on the line A A of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line B B, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical crosssection on the line C C, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a section of the air-heating fines between the supporting piers on the line D D, Fig. 1.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts in each.

My improved furnace is specially designed for the utilization of natural gas, but may be operated bythe use of manufactured gas, if desired. It is also intended to obviate the necessity for the construction of the checkerwork of regenerators, and to obtain the benetit of the use of the waste products of combustion for heating the air supplied to it for combustion of the gas, by means of a construction which will obviate the enormous expense attendant upon the construction of checker-work regcnerators.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use myinvention, I will now describe it by reference to the drawings.

The bed a is of the usual construction and is provided with a neckflue, Z), through which the waste products of combustion pass therefrom. The flue Z) is connected with a descending flue, c, which leads downward to a point some distance below the bottom of the bed. Under the bed is a chamber, (Z, in which are arranged a series of longitudinal fines, 6, com posed of sections 6 of pipes made of fire-clay or other suitable refractory material, and above the fines e is a clear space or dome-chainber, rZ, into which the heated air rises after passing between the pipes and before being led into the vertical flue it. These fines are supported by the end walls, d, at the ends and by intermediate brick piers, f. at the joints.

The piers are supported upon broad thick tiles, 9, which in turn are sustained by piers Zz,which constitute the division-walls of airfiues i, extending under the chamber (Z. I have shown in the drawings three rows of fines 6, each row filling the chamber Z entirely across its breadth. The piers fare composed of horizontal courses f between each horizontal row of the lines 6, and vertical courses f between each vertical row of lines. Between the piers the space occupied by the conrsesf and f is open, as shown in Fig. 4, so that the air from the dues i is permitted to ascend between the pipes, as shown by the arrows in Fig. 4. The outlet-passage c communicates with the fines e by openings Z through the intermediate wall, (Z, and at the other end the fines 6 open directly into the stack-flue k, which leads up to the stack Z. The course of the products of combustion is from the bed, through the flue Z1, down the passage 0, openings (Z fiues e, stack-flue Zr, and stack Z. At the front end of the furnace is an air-supply opening or chamber, m, communicating direct] y with the horizontal-airlines The air enters the air-fines 21 from the chamberm and passes directly under the lines 0, between which it ascends, as shown by the arrows in Fig. 4, into the dome of the chamber (Z, whence it passes, by avertical flue, n, u pward to the bridge-wall and then over the bridgewall into the bed. The gas is supplied from a supply-pipe, 0, to a distributing main, 1), from which it passes to the furnace by nozzles 12, extending through the wall d, and is delivered at the upper end of the flue n, on or nearly on a level with the top of the bridgewall a. The waste heat passing from the bed of the furnace, as described, through the re fract-ory flues e, heats the latter up to a very high temperature, and the air passing from the air-fines 2', up between the fines 6, takes up the heat from the latter and is delivered into the furnace in a highly-heated condition.

Theconstruction of the dues e of refractory material enables them not only to become res ervoirs of the best possible description for storing the waste heat, but to resist the intense temperature to which they are exposed without rapid destructiomwhile their formation in sections, the ends of which are supported by the piers f, provides for such expansion and contraction as they are subjected to, so that they are not liable to become distorted or displaced thereby.

The chamber d is easily accessible for the purpose of removing or replacing injured sections of pipe.

The expense of the construction of this furnace, as compared with the ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace, is small, while, on the other hand, it gives practically the same result. It is particularly fitted for use with natural gas, as it gives the very high temperature required for the perfect combustion of the same. In the use of natural gas it is necessary to supply a very large volume of highlyheated air and a comparatively small volume of gas, the latter being discharged into the furnace at or .near the point of combustion in a practically cold state. My improvement enables me to adapt it to existing furnaces with but little additional expense, and thereby avoids the necessity for the construction of the enormously expensive Siemens regenerative furnaces heretofore found to be necessary for the perfect combustion of the gas.

I am aware that Siemens furnaces have been constructed with regenerators, in which the air was caused to pass through a chamber heated by the waste gases by means of clay pipes arranged in a serpentine form and supported at the joints by brick piers, and I do not desire to claim such construction.

I am aware that it is not new, in hot-air blast-furnaces, to have air-heating pipes made of fire-clay, supported by the side walls of the heating-chamber, each of said pipes being composed of one piece and extending entirely across the said chamber and through the walls of the same. I make no claim to such construction; but

WVhat I do claim as my invent-ion, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, in a metallurgical furnace, of a chamber arranged under the bed provided with a series of fines for conveying away the waste products of combustion, composed of sections of clay pipes supported at the joints by suitable piers, air-inlet passages entering said chamber below the level of the waste fines, a dome-chamber arranged above the waste-fines, a flue leading from said chamber to the bridge-wall of the furnace, and a gassupply pipe or pipes discharging at or near the bridge-wall, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my hand this 6th day of June, A. D. 1884.

SAMUEL 'I. OW ENS.

Vitnesses:

THOMAS B. KERR, W. B. CORWIN. 

